MOTOR SPORT: McLAREN'S JENSON Button won the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position yesterday after a first corner pile-up ended the hopes of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Formula One leader Fernando Alonso.
Button enjoyed an untroubled afternoon in the Spa sunshine, making just one stop and taking the chequered flag 13.6 seconds clear of Red Bull’s double world champion Sebastian Vettel, who won from pole last year.
Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, took third place for Lotus to strengthen his title challenge in his comeback year with a fourth podium in five races.
Alonso, who started the race with a 40-point lead over Red Bull’s Australian Mark Webber, had hoped for a record-equalling 24th successive points finish but that was shattered early on.
His lead was slashed to 24 points, less than a race win, with Vettel rising to second overall. Webber dropped to third, 32 points adrift of Alonso. Raikkonen is one point behind in fourth.
The Spaniard could at least consider himself fortunate not to have been hit on the head by the flying Lotus of Frenchman Romain Grosjean, whose car took off after colliding with Hamilton and flew over the front of the Ferrari.
Grosjean was handed a one-race ban for causing the collision, which brought out the safety car, meaning he will miss next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
Sauber’s Sergio Perez also retired on the spot in a miserable afternoon for his Swiss team after having both their cars in the top four.
Button’s 14th career win, and first at the classic Spa circuit, came in his 50th race for McLaren. Force India’s German Nico Hulkenberg came fourth, his team’s best result of the season, ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Webber.
Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher marked his 300th grand prix with seventh place for Mercedes after running as high as second at the circuit where he began his F1 career in 1991 and took his first win in 1992.
The stewards were given plenty to ponder with a stack of incidents investigated after the race.
While Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado were punished heavily, and Caterham were fined €10,000 for the unsafe release of Heikki Kovalainen at a pitstop, Webber and Schumacher escaped sanction.
Schumacher had cut across Vettel sharply to get into the pitlane after the two had battled for fourth place with 20 of the 44 laps gone.
Vettel, who started 10th and also did one stop as he battled through the field, described the race as “crazy”. “I’m not bothered in terms of points and gaps at the moment. There are a lot of races ahead and . . . bloody hell, if you saw the first corner, you can see how quickly things can change. That’s racing, said the German.
BELGIAN GRAND PRIX FINAL POSITIONS
Leading final positions: 1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1hr 29mins 08.530secs, 2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:29:22.154, 3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:29:33.864, 4 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India 1:29:36.373, 5 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:29:38.375, 6 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:29:39.774, 7 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:30:01.904, 8 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30:07.395, 9 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30:11.512, 10 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:30:12.313, 11 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:30:13.641, 12 Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams 1:30:20.059, 13 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:31:04.649, 14 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham at 1 lap.
Leading drivers standings: 1 Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 164, 2 Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull 140, 3 Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 132, 4 Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Renault 131, 5 Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 117, 6 Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 101, 7 Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes GP 77, 8 Romain Grosjean (France) Renault 76, 9 Sergio Perez (Mexico) Sauber 47, 10 Michael Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes GP 35, 11 Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 35, 12 Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sauber 33, 13 Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India 31, 14 Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Williams 29. Constructors Points: 1 RedBull 272, 2 McLaren 218, 3 Lotus 207, 4 Ferrari 199, 5 Mercedes 112, 6 Sauber 80, 7 Force India 59 8 Williams 53.
